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This concession applies to “live dramatic, choreographic or musical performance” - which is one way of describing what is on offer at the club.

In its submission to the court, Hustler said its performances were attended by consenting adults who were able to enjoy what it described as “non-obscene presentational dance entertainment”.

Such “presentational dance entertainment” - including striptease - is protected under the First Amendment to the US Constitution, the club’s lawyers argue.

This amendment provides protection for freedom of speech and peaceful assembly.

However, according to the New York Daily News, Renel Saint-Amour, the state’s auditor, is contesting the club’s claim for tax exemption.

“It is related to dramatics, things that are performed at an opera house and not in terms of a social club that provides exotic dancers or the so-called gentleman’s club,” he argues.

“What is performed at the club is entertainers that perform laptop dancing. We don’t view that as a dramatic event.”

Daniel Shaviro, professor of taxation at New York University, suggested the arguments are finely balanced.

The club, he said, could present an argument under the First Amendment.

However he added: “New York State would presumably argue in response that it is allowed to exempt some kinds of protected speech, but not others, from the reach of its sales tax, and that this particular way of limiting the exemption is permissible.

“As a matter of statutory interpretation, while I also have never attended any of these events (or any similar ones), it presumably is a question of fact whether particular performances at the taxpayer’s club might qualify as dramatic events under the law.”